


The Jaded Jester

by ForthwrittenScourge



Category: Deltarune (Video Game)
Genre: All that you know is that the reader cares about Jevil, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, Hinted past between Jevil and Reader, In fact I don't think I even used pronouns for the reader in this, It's just a lot of "you", No Smut, Other, Reader Is Not Kris (Deltarune), Reader-Insert, Seam is mentioned, Though not directly, can be seen as platonic or romantic, it's pretty ambiguous, reader is gender-neutral
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-04
Updated: 2020-01-04
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:41:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21988975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ForthwrittenScourge/pseuds/ForthwrittenScourge
Summary: Jevil is exhausted. You know it, he knows (?) it, and if Seam were still around, he'd be cuffing the hyperactive joker until he got into bed.Unfortunately, Seam is not around. And Jevil's a lot less willing to listen to you.At least, without a game of sorts...
Relationships: Jevil (Deltarune)/Reader
Comments: 3
Kudos: 62





	The Jaded Jester

“Jevil, you need to sleep.”

You and Jevil had been locked in this cell for about two weeks now (as best as you could estimate, given that the guards didn’t exactly keep you up to date) and you hadn’t seen Jevil catch even a minute of sleep. You weren’t sure he had closed his eyes once this entire time.

He was a naturally energetic person, but even he was pushing it. He was bouncing around the cell as usual, jittery and giggly, occasionally shouting something nonsensical to the nothingness outside the bars. Typically, he was indefatigable to the point where no one would be able to tell when he was getting winded, let alone exhausted; now, however, the former jester had some definite tells: his bouncing was more erratic and sloppy, sometimes resulting in his losing his balance (which he was quick to right, but that’s beside the point- Jevil _never_ lost his balance). His tail was starting to droop, and he was somehow louder, as if his body was trying desperately to get his point (if there even was one in his rambling) across before he collapsed. He was wracked with twitching, which would be normal if not for the fact that it didn’t look like he was doing it purposely anymore.

All in all, he was running on fumes, and you could tell.

“Sleep, sleep? Why would I sleep? There’s far too much to do, do! I’ve much chaos, chaos to cause! If only we were outside of our little freedom, freedom…” He trailed off. Yet another tell- he was repeating himself twice as often as normal.

You sighed... He had been going on about your “little freedom” since you both had been locked up, and while it annoyed you greatly, you were hesitant to say anything about it. Clearly, Jevil was in no state of mind to be contradicted, and you had a sneaking suspicion that this was his way of coping with his impossibly long sentence. 

“Let’s play a game, game!” Jevil clapped his hands together gleefully as you groaned. You did not want to play any more of Jevil’s “games.” His idea of a game was a lot more violent than anyone else’s, particularly the kings’. In fact, they’re what got you both behind bars in the first place- him because he started them and you because you tried to stop them, but were just a little too slow and much too kind. The kings figured you an accomplice thanks to your nonviolent attempts to stop him (despite the fact that they stalled him for a lot longer than anyone’s attacks did), and decided that you deserved a punishment equal to his.

You had yet to figure out whether or not being placed in the same cell as him was a mercy, or further punishment.

“I don’t know... I think we’ve played enough games.” You tried to worm your way out of it as kindly as possible, but he wasn’t having it.

“Enough, enough? There’s no such thing as enough games! Come on, play, play with me!” He beckoned. You really weren’t in the mood for this, so you opted to respond with a simple “No.”

That was apparently the wrong answer, for Jevil replied with one of his haunting little laughs, a “Uee hee hee” that rang around the entire cell as if you both had been standing in a cavern. And after this creepy echo subsided, something equally creepy left his mouth:

“How can you refuse, when you are already playing…?”

And just like that, you were thrust into an encounter.

_* LET THE GAMES BEGIN!_

This again. Wonderful.

The world in your peripherals started to revolve around some invisible point in the center of the room as Jevil’s magic grabbed fistfuls of the fabric of reality. He was only able to reach the area inside the cell, and given how his exhaustion had left him particularly energetic, his magic was overflowing into the small box that you now called home, warping it into something entirely different. You had no idea what the hell was going on with the walls, the floor, the ceiling, every part of this place was rendered in a manner beyond your comprehension. Maybe it was the visual cacophony of colors, or the dizzying movement of the room (cell? _caro_ cell?), but the sudden influx of sensory input after a few days of nothingness had your head spinning.

Despite the vertigo, your next epiphany came quickly: perhaps if you kept this going, Jevil would use up all his magic and finally collapse into sleep!

This plan seemed a little less feasible as soon as you checked your ACT menu. You had the same options you always had when dealing with Jevil: Check, hypnosis, and pirouette. You knew you wouldn’t get enough tension points to hypnotize Jevil every turn, because you couldn’t afford to get that close to the ex-jester’s bullets, so that only left a mix of hypnosis and pirouetting. With the state of the world (if what was happening was even real), doing a fancy spin sounded like the last thing you would want to do. In fact, you were pretty sure that if any more spinning was to go on, you’d completely lose your sense of placement and topple to the floor in a heap.

But… You had to get Jevil to rest, if even for just a moment. He needed some sleep a lot more than you needed to know the difference between up and down.

With that in mind, your resolve steeled, and you checked Jevil to get through your first turn.

_* ~~Truly exhausted. He feels~~ There is no strategy to defeat the enemy. Good luck!_

Wait, what? Did he have control over the data in others’ checks? You were caught up pondering the limits of Jevil’s power when his first attack started, and you, realizing this at the last second, got shot in the leg with three spade bullets. Cursing, you jumped out of the way, avoiding all the rest of his attacks as deftly as one could while hurt given that you had been through this at least five times in the last month.

_* The air crackles with freedom._

Luckily, you had enough TP to pirouette, and you did so, hissing in pain when you were forced to raise your injured leg to achieve the graceful spin. If Jevil noticed this, he didn’t show it, instead relaxing his shoulders just slightly.

_* (Y/N) spun around!_  
_JEVIL got slightly more TIRED, and…!_

_* JEVIL felt at ease!_  
_* JEVIL’s defense dropped!_

You didn’t have much time to rejoice, because Jevil was quick to fire off another volley of shots, this time surrounding you with spade bullets that required you to spin your Soul around to avoid them. Great, even more twirling. You weren’t sure you could keep going any longer, on the verge of tripping over your own feet, when his turn finally ended.

_* It feels like a whirlwind._

Yeah, damn right it did. Thankfully, you had had enough close calls to afford hypnosis, and you chose to do so, fixing Jevil with an odd look.

_* (Y/N) gazed strangely!_  
_* JEVIL’s next attack weakened!_  
_* JEVIL became more TIRED!_

Still didn’t stop his next attack, which was a collection of heart bullets- all spinning, of course. For light’s sake, could he knock it off with the spinning attacks?

You tripped around them, knocking into two, the force of which was enough to knock you off your feet. Right before you could get nailed in the face with one of the hearts, his attack ended, and you scrambled to your feet.

_* Smells like chaos._

You knew what was coming next, and you knew you wouldn’t like it. He went in the same order every time he started another “numbers game,” first the spade bullets, then the hearts, then-

“HA, HA. LET’S MAKE THE DEVILSKNIFE.”

Holy _shit_ , he just skipped your turn!

You had no time to marvel over how he pulled that, seeing as he had already chanted his usual “METAMORPHOSIS!” and started throwing copies of the devilsknife at you. You ducked and weaved as they spun in and out of an invisible circle, forcing you to do-si-do away from their razor-sharp edges.

_* The world is spinning, spinning._

He appeared back in front of you, and you made sure to waste no time in choosing to ACT, seeing as Jevil could apparently revoke your ability to do anything if he so wished.

_* (Y/N) spun around!_  
_JEVIL got slightly more TIRED, and…!_

_* What! It's nothing but a useless bird!_

Your head was starting to pound from the endless motion in the room, and your stomach was starting to roil in solidarity. You knew that you couldn’t take much more of this, so you dredged up as much willpower as you could, put as much intent as possible in your Soul, and you cut off Jevil’s next line of dialogue.

“Jevil, please. You’re exhausted, and I think… I think I’m gonna pass out. Can you just stop?” You pleaded, your tone of voice some mixture of concerned and exasperated. It took a second for you to force the words out, and they were a tad slurred, jumbled up by your frazzled brain.

That got him to freeze in his tracks… But only for about two seconds. He was quick to plaster a smile onto his face and proceed with his next attack- the carousel game.

Absolutely nothing could have been worse for your already dizzy state than the carousel game. The horses (?) revolved around what would have been the center of the room if it had not been shifting around in your vision, undulating up, and down, and up, and down-

It took two spins of the “carousel” for you to vomit up everything in your stomach (which admittedly wasn’t much), after which you promptly blacked out, tumbling right into the puddle of your sick.

It took Jevil a second to notice, given all the visual chaos that he was currently delighting in, but when it came time for you to ACT (he knew you would never try to hurt him), he realized why your end of the room had become so stagnant.

Just like that, the fight was over.

He hovered over to your side with haste, turning your body from prone to supine and waiting to hear your breathing. Upon acquainting himself with that steady pattern, he relaxed enough to finally realize that you had been laying in a pile of puke. He winced a little at that- it was only _supposed_ to be a game, but now your tunic was completely soiled with the contents of your stomach.

He made quick work of it, yanking it over your head and tossing it over by the bars of the cell before yanking you away from the remnants of your bile. Hopefully, one of those prisoners would see fit to wash it, so that you weren’t reduced to wearing a sleeveless undershirt in your rather cold freedom. Any minute now, you would-

Yep, you were starting to shiver.

Jevil sighed, a rather rare action for him, as he unclasped his cloak. It wasn’t quite as warm as your tunic- a flash went through his mind of a cloth tent and trees, of a warm shirt pulled over his head to halt his quivering, of a grinning cat and a sweet laugh- but then again, how would he know?

Whatever. It would have to do.

Once he had settled down to tuck it around you, though, he found it incredibly difficult to get back up. As in, impossible. He was about to defy the overwhelming urge to lie down next to you, since _he can do anything_ and he was not about to let something as trivial as fatigue invalidate that statement, but... Something made him pause.

What if he didn’t… _want_ to do anything?

As insistent as he was on never resting, something in him told him that perhaps it wouldn’t be such a sin against himself to allow himself… Just a short repose.

And with that, he was cuddled into your side, out like a light.

**Author's Note:**

> There are little to no Deltarune fics on this site without smut. I don't have anything against smut, but it's nice to double back and wind down outside of the sin bin sometimes.
> 
> Luckily, due to my incompetence at writing smut, I can fill the (very little) demand there is for smut-less fics easily!
> 
> Feedback is much appreciated.


End file.
